生物与医学2022journals.plos.org
食用昆虫在寄生虫病传播给人类中的作用
Edible insects role in transmission of parasitic diseases to humans (2019)
入门 · 约 45 分钟读完前置知识：寄生虫学基础、食品安全常识
导读
这篇 2019 年发表于 PLOS ONE 的论文研究食用昆虫作为人类食物时传播寄生虫病的风险，梳理了可感染人类的寄生虫种类及其通过昆虫传播的途径。研究表明食用昆虫并非如很多人直觉认为的那样安全，存在被寄生虫污染或携带的实际风险。
HN 关注点：食用昆虫常被宣传为可持续的未来蛋白来源，HN 读者关注其安全性证据，以及文化上的'恶心感'是否其实是演化出的保护机制。
HN 评论精选
这几条评论里：支持 1 补充 2 亲历 1
补充寄生虫风险远不止食用昆虫，多种耐环境的人畜共患寄生虫正在通过食物链扩散
这个话题的重要性被低估了，而且无论人类是否直接吃昆虫都适用。以古巴树蛙为例，它早已在佛罗里达通过食物链宿主和传播鼠肺线虫。鼠肺线虫传染性强、不挑食，连大脑都感染。缅甸蟒是佛州另一个新兴宿主。还有其他线虫、绦虫等正在扩张地盘，比如浣熊蛔虫在美国几乎随处可见，感染人类后往往无法治愈。有研究显示 250 名野生动物救助人员中约 40 人曾暴露于此寄生虫。鼠肺线虫和浣熊蛔虫都极耐环境破坏，浣熊蛔虫甚至能在紫外线、甲醛和极低温下存活。鼠肺线虫可附着在蔬菜等表面，蜗牛是常见媒介，很难通过清洗去除。
eth0up查看英文原文
The importance of this subject is underestimated and applies as well quite independently of whether humans eat the insects directly or not. Consider the cuban tree frog for example, which has long since initiated its campaign in Florida to host and spread throughout the food chain the rat lungworm nematode. Rat lungworm (angiostrongylus) holds its own in the burgeoning presence of hideous and hostile parasites. It is highly infectious to many species and no picky eater, as it favors the entire body of the host, the brain and all. Burmese pythons are another up and coming host in Florida, and while they might prefer a provincial life in the everglades, many other species will meander north and onward. There are other nasties from nematodes to cestodes and more, gaining new ground. Baylisascaris procyonis is another terrible nematode found almost anywhere in the US, mostly in racoons, but in other species (humans included) with more varying and less frequency and it's often incurable. A study showed that, if I remember correctly, 40 out of 250 wildlife rehabilitation personnel had been exposed, but symptoms varied by exposure load. Both rat lungworm and baylis ascaris are resistant to environmental elements that normally break things down, with baylis even surviving UV light, formaldehyde and extreme cold. Rat lungworm can be deposited on surfaces (eg vegetables), and snails are common vectors. Lungworm is very difficult to remove by washing while baylis is so adhesive that wildlife control authorities advise disposing of rather than washing shovels or tools exposed to racoon latrines. The list goes merrily along with other nasties, but it would require time to refresh my memory and accurately describe more.
补充昆虫太小无法逐只检疫，恶心感和饮食禁忌可能是演化出的防护机制
大型动物可以逐只检查病原体，而昆虫太小，几乎不可能逐个检查，只能抽样，漏掉坏个体的概率仍然很高。水果蔬菜同理，有些几乎无法检查或清洗——无虫的犹太洁食生菜和浆果比普通版本贵得多。最后，恶心感是人类免疫系统的一部分，宗教饮食禁忌和文化禁忌可能部分源于恶心感，部分源于试错经验。
nivertech查看英文原文
Larger animals can be inspected individually to find pathogens or diseases. Insects are so small that it's practically impossible to inspect each individual organism. You can do sampling of the batch, but the odds of missing bad ones are still high. Same with the fruits and vegetables, some are easy to inspect, others are almost impossible, or impossible to clean. There are kosher (insect-free) versions of lettuce and some berries which are much more expensive than non-kosher ones. Lastly, disgust is a part of the human immune system. Religious dietary laws and cultural taboos are probably partly developed from disgust, and partly from trial-and-error.
亲历作者坦承直觉错误：本以为吃虫更安全，实际寄生虫风险比预想高
我多年来一直好奇这个问题，读到这篇文章非常欣慰。我的主要收获是我的直觉完全错了——我原以为昆虫给人类带来寄生虫的风险要小得多。当然我不会凭这个假设去冒险，而且烹饪昆虫似乎能消灭大部分病原体，但我本以为它更安全。要比较昆虫和传统畜牧业（两者似乎都背负不少问题）还需要读更多，但很高兴看到这样的研究让这种比较成为可能。
steve_adams_86查看英文原文
I’ve wondered about this for a few years so this is extremely gratifying to read. I’ll have to go in deeper later to really understand the implications of each parasite, but my main takeaway is that my intuition here was way off. I expected insects to pose far fewer risks from parasites to humans. I wouldn’t have taken a chance based on that assumption, and cooking bugs seems like it would eliminate most of these pathogens, but still. I figured it would be safer. I’d need to read a lot more to draw some kind of comparison between insects and animal agriculture (both seem to carry plenty of baggage), but it’s great to see research like this so it’s possible to begin doing so.
支持人类普遍的吃虫恶心感可能是自然选择留下的生存优势
如果昆虫真是如此有价值且无风险的营养来源，为什么没有更多人类文化吃它们？昆虫一直存在，但我们却对吃虫抱有普遍的恶心感。假设这种恶心感帮助我们存活下来，并不算牵强。
ramblerman查看英文原文
If insects were such a valuable and risk free source of nutrition wouldn't we see a lot more human cultures eating them? They've been around forever, but somehow we share a mostly common disgust for eating bugs. Is it farfetched to assume that perhaps that disgust allowed us to survive.
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